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Freya Marske’s inventive and impressive début, A Marvellous Light, is an enchanting blend of magic, mystery and romance set in England in 1908, in which a newly-appointed civil servant finds himself suddenly part of a mysterious and fantastical world of deadly curses, spells and secrets. It’s a clever, well-written story featuring two attractive and strongly characterised protagonists, the magical world-building is vivid without being overly complex or subject to info-dumps, and the opposites/antagonists attract romance is nicely developed and steamy. There are a few places where the pacing flags a bit, and the secondary characters are somewhat one-dimensional, but those issues didn’t impact on my enjoyment of the novel as a whole.
Sir Robert – Robin – Blyth inherited a baronetcy upon the recent death of his father, but thanks to the profligacy of both his parents, he needs to work for a living in order to support himself and his younger sister Maud. When the story begins, he’s just arrived at the Home Office to take up the post of Assistant in the Office of Special Domestic Affairs and Complaints, a position which opened up after the disappearance of the previous incumbent, Reggie Gatling. Robin hasn’t got a clue what’s expected of him – he’s never even heard of the Office of Special Domestic Affairs and Complaints – and assumes his appointment must be a mistake. On his very first morning, he meets the snappish Edwin Courcey – liaison to the Chief Minister of the Magical Assembly – who rudely demands to know where Reggie is. Robin can’t enlighten him – and is further baffled when the other man starts talking about magic and spells and imbuement and other things that make little to no sense. Assuming, at first, that this is some sort of joke, Robin is sceptical – until Edwin provides a physical demonstration and it’s impossible for him to disbelieve the evidence of his own eyes. Magic is real.
Later that day, Robin has left the office and is still trying to make sense of everything he’s learned when he is accosted by a man – who appears to have no face – who loops a glowing piece of yarn around Robin’s wrist that makes him unable to do anything other than follow where he’s led. Two more men wearing “fog masks” await them – men who tell Robin that his predecessor hid something very important in his office and that Robin is going to help them find it. Robin is determined to do no such thing – but then something is burned into his arm – a pattern of runes that causes excruciating pain which, he later learns, is a curse.
Robin and Edwin don’t get off to the best of starts, but after Robin arrives at work the next morning to find his office has been wrecked, he fills Edwin in on his encounter the previous night and they decide the only option is for them to work together to see if they can find out what Reggie had hidden and if Edwin can find a way to lift the curse. Realising he needs more information than is available to him in London, Edwin invites Robin to accompany him to his family home in Cambridgeshire, where they can make use of the extensive library to research the curse, attempt to work out what happened to Reggie and discover the location of the item the fog-masked men are after.
Robin and Edwin are well-rounded and engaging characters who are like chalk and cheese, in appearance, temperament and magical ability. Robin is completely non-magical; he’s charming, spontaneous and open-hearted with a good sense of humour and an innate generosity, where Edwin is thoughtful and meticulous, somewhat closed-off and cautious. He’s a brilliant scholar with a massive amount of magical knowledge – but not much magical ability, something which causes his family members to look down on him and treat him with disdain. His older brother is a powerful magician who bullied Edwin mercilessly when they were children and continues to do so at every opportunity, and his sister is a social butterfly who, like their parents, turns a blind eye to the way Edwin is treated and often joins in. Robin has no family now apart from Maud; he was never close to his parents, who put on a public face of philanthropy and compassion while really caring only for themselves and who remembered Robin or his sister only when they wanted to use them to show everyone around them what wonderful parents they were.
Robin and Edwin gradually begin to develop a mutual respect and admiration; from this, a genuine friendship grows and is the basis for their romance, which is a nicely-done slow-burn. They have terrific chemistry and I thoroughly appreciated that the author takes the time to draw out the sexual tension and give things time to breathe before they embark on a physical relationship. There are still issues to be settled between them however; Edwin has become so used to having to lock down his true self and hide his most vulnerable side as a form of self-preservation that he finds it difficult to trust and give of himself to Robin, no matter how much he wants to.
I liked the way magic works in the book; we’re told that magicians in England use “cradling” – a system of hand movements based on Cat’s Cradle – to cast spells, and I loved the magical house and the idea of people being magically connected to certain places.
On the downside, the pacing is a little uneven in places, the dénouement is a bit drawn out and slightly repetitive, and the secondary characters are slightly one-note – although I did enjoy Miss Morrisey and her sister (two Anglo-Indian ladies), and hope that perhaps we’ll see a bit more of Lord Hawthorn. I would like to have learned more about the Magical Assembly and the history of magic in England – although as this is a series, perhaps those details will become clear in future instalments.
In the end, though, A Marvellous Light is a highly entertaining and very readable début novel featuring two endearing leads and plenty of gentle humour, magical shenanigans, mystery and romance. I’m more than happy to recommend it, and will definitely be picking up the next in the series.
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Grade: B+
Book Type: Fantasy Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 04/12/21
Publication Date: 11/2021
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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Just finished this a day or so ago. Thank you for the review (and those “best of 2021”) mentions. I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.
You’re welcome. I’ve seen that the second book is due out this Autumn, and that it’s about Maud (Robin’s sister) and is f/f – A Restless Truth. I admit I’d hoped for more Edwin and Robin so I’m on the fence.
That could make Robin’s newly discovered foresight skills problematic?!
More seriously, I’m looking forward to where author is going to take the story/world she is creating overall. I’m all about the relationships between characters for sure (and I’m assuming Robin and Edwin will continue to move the plot – if not the relationships – forward), but equally curious to see what happens with/to magic as well. I’ll be reading the second installment.
The synopsis indicates this is a shipboard romance with Maud en route to New York:
The most interesting things in Maud Blyth’s life have happened to her brother Robin, but she’s ready to join any cause, especially if it involves magical secrets that may threaten the whole of the British Isles. Bound for New York on the R.M.S. Lyric, she’s ready for an adventure.
What she actually finds is a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and a beautiful stranger in Violet Debenham, who is everything–a magician, an actress, a scandal–Maud has been trained to fear and has learned to desire. Surrounded by the open sea and a ship full of loathsome, aristocratic suspects, they must solve a murder and untangle a conspiracy that began generations before them.
so I doubt Robin and Edwin will feature largely. I thought there was a fair bit left hanging at the end of A Marvellous Light and had hoped book two would be a continuation. I’ll probably wait to read reviews before I decide whether to pick it up.
I, too, caught this one from reader Jane mentioned below. I’m so glad I took a look. Such a great début. I agree there was a tiny bit of drag in the middle, but all in all the story was well layered, well written and definitely enjoyable. I’ll be looking for the next in the series.
On another note, I truly appreciated the author acknowledging the indigenous land on which she wrote most of the book. In the acknowledgments, she also noted the inspiration for the Courcey family home, Wightwick Manor. So beautiful!
Recommend this title for sure!
A reader named Jane recommended this book as her best of the year in one of the blog posts from last month. She said it was described as “Red, White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” and this was a fair comparison. The Amazon description sounded good and I have it on hold at the library. I’m glad to see such a great review and look forward to reading it!
Yes, this book wasn’t on my radar at all, so it’s thanks to that comment that I picked it up for review. It’s not going to make my Best of 2021 list, but it’s a very strong opening to what I hope is going to be an equally strong series.
I will say, however, that I have no idea where the comparison to Red, White and Royal Blue comes from, because A Marvellous Light is NOTHING like it! I used to work in PR so I know marketing speak and how things get stretched to the point of untruth, but that is a completely unfounded comparision. Both leads are gay, but there, the similarity ends. Both are English, the book has a historical setting and there is magic in it – none of which applies to RWaRB. The Jonathan Strange comparision may be apt, although I haven’t read that one, so I’m not sure, although again, I suspect “historical” and “magic” may be the only real similarities.
This is on my TBR pile!
I hope you enjoy it – there’s a KJ Charles feel to some of it, although it doesn’t have her intrinsic wit and Englishness, but it’s a strong debut and definitely made me want to continue with the series.
This sounds really interesting, but I have to ask, does the negative family dynamic play a big part in the book? I can take it if it isn’t long or drawn out or if we get breaks from it, but I’m not a fan of family drama. :-) Thank you!
There’s a large-ish section set at the family home so the brother and sister do appear fairly often, but it’s not constant. You’ll laugh – I was actually thinking of you as I wrote this, because I thought the book might interest you, but that the family drama might be an issue. It’s definitely more than some books we’ve spoken about recently, but I don’t think it’s overpowering.
I’ve just got a review copy of the audio version, which, if it isn’t out yet, is out soon (the book isn’t out in the UK until next week).
Ha! It’s like you know me and have had to answer a dozen or so of these type of questions or something! I’m going to give it a try.
I just checked and the audiobook is available in the US. Are you familiar with the narrator? David Thorpe?
I’ve listened to him a couple of times – not recently, although I seem to recall he was good. He’s got over 500 titles to his name at Audible UK, so he must be doing something right! I’m going to review for AG, so I’ll let you know :)